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Football Headed to CHAMPS Heart of Texas Bowl

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

MESA, AZ - For the second year in a row the Mesa football team is headed to a bowl game.

This time the T-Birds will travel to Texas to play sixth-ranked Trinity Valley (Texas) in the CHAMPS Heart of Texas Bowl. The game will be played Saturday, Dec. 7 at 11:00 a.m. in Copperas Cove, Texas, as part of a doubleheader that will also involve a contest between two NCAA Division II teams.

The T-Birds finished with an 8-2 record and earned another bowl bid following last year's appearance in the Valley of the Sun Bowl.

Trinity Valley is 9-2 and has won its last eight games after a 1-2 start. It is the champion of the Southwest Junior College Football Conference.

It marks the first time MCC has played in consecutive bowl games since the 1975-76 seasons and the Thunderbirds' 11th post-season appearance overall.

It also continues the T-Birds remarkable transformation over the past two years from a program that was 1-10 in 2011 and had won just seven games in the previous four years combined.

Head coach Ryan Felker and his staff directed MCC to a 6-4 regular season record last season before falling in the Valley of the Sun Bowl, 41-35, to Glendale.